Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

I am back with another zucchini recipe. Even though we do not have a garden this year, I can’t help but being obsessed with this prolific summer vegetable. There are so many things you can do with zucchini. For those who are waiting for this flavorful meal to be cooked, they can spend some time on games such as 얀카지노. Patricia Wells featured this recipe in her Provence Cookbook. The unique aspect of the recipe is the curry powder that is added to the ingredients. Not everyone loves curry. I served this to my friend Jackie, who is not a curry lover, and she loved the dish. The curry is subtle but distinct. Jackie is babysitting for our dog Daisy at the lake while we are in Michigan.

I am traveling right now so do not know when I will have a chance to blog in the near future.  I will be back soon.  Enjoy the cooler weather.  We are going to a hometown football game in Michigan this Friday.  It is supposed to be in the 40’s.  Orange and Black, Fight Fight!  I bought a beautiful apricot silk top to wear to the reunion with my black slacks but realized belatedly that I would be wearing our school colors.  I thought that might be a bit too much.  I exchanged it for a different color.

ZUCCHINI GALETTE (Patricia Wells)

1 pound zucchini ( 4 medium), trimmed
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon curry powder

Fresh tomato sauce (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Using the coarse grating blade of a food processor, coarsely grate the zucchini.  Transfer to a colander, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the salt, and let sit to drain for 30 minutes.  Rinse the zucchini under cold running water, spread it out in an absorbent dish towel (or layers of paper towels), and press to remove as much liquid as possible.

Place the eggs in a large bowl and beat lightly with a fork.  Add the bread crumbs, cheese, curry powder and final teaspoon of salt.  Add the zucchini and stir to thoroughly coat the zucchini with the batter.  Place in a 10 1/2-inch round baking dish and even out the top with the back of a spatula.

Place in the center of the oven and bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes.  Serve with a fresh tomato sauce, if desired.

Printable recipe

Well, I did it.  It took a while and there are things I will do differently the next time, but I learned a lot and the mile high quiche was deemed a success.  The custard was creamy.  The asparagus, Swiss cheese and bacon worked well together and the buttery pastry crust was one of the best I have ever made.  Let’s start by discussing the crust.

The original recipe for this quiche came from Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Bouchon fame.  He dubbed it an “over the top” quiche.  The buttery pastry crust is made in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  The two sticks of cubed butter are added in increments to the slowly running mixer into half of the flour until they are incorporated.  Then the second cup of flour is added and mixed on low until it is all combined.  Ice water is added and the dough is formed.  That is the easiest pastry I have ever made.  After resting in the refrigerator, it is rolled out to fit the spring form pan.  It rolled out like a dream and was easy to handle as I fitted it into the pan.

I did not follow Keller’s recipe exactly.  There was some discussion about leaving the bottom out of the springform pan and using the sheet pan surface for the bottom.  That made no sense to me.  I have found since that Deb of Smitten Kitchen attempted this with less than stellar results.  Just use the springform pan as intended and you will be fine.

Next add a circle of parchment paper and fill with dried beans.  I have a big bag of dried beans that I use over and over again to blind bake pie crusts.  It is baked for a long time.  I thought it would be too long but it worked out fine.  You are now finished with this step, which can be done way ahead of time.

Now for the filling:  The original recipe which you can view here, called for lots of mushrooms.  I chose to use asparagus, bacon and Swiss cheese.  The reason I am calling my quiche an almost mile high quiche is because the volume of the filling turned out to be less without all of those mushrooms. When done, the filling did not quite come to the top of the fluted crust.

But to me it was a thing of beauty.  Next time I will separate three of the eggs and whip the egg whites to fold into the filling to give it more volume.  I think that will do the trick.

Good eats!

MILE HIGH ASPARAGUS, BACON AND SWISS CHEESE QUICHE

Buttery Pastry Shell:
2 cups unbleached flour, sifted.  Plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks chilled unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch dice
1/4 cup ice water
canola oil for brushing

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, mix 1 cup of the flour with the salt.  At low speed, add the butter pieces a handful at a time.  When all of the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium and beat until all of the butter is incorporated.  Reduce the speed to low and add the last 1 cup of flour just until blended.  Mix in the water just until throughly incorporated.  Flatten the pastry on a floured board into an 8 inch disk.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until chilled at least 1 hour or overnight.

Place the unwrapped pastry on a floured board and roll in out to a 14″ to 16″ round, dusting with flour as needed.  Carefully fit it into an oiled 9″ springform pan.  Pat it into the pan and trim the excess pastry from the top, leaving enough pastry to flute the top.  Flute and gently press the top against the edge.  Chill the pastry shell for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line the pastry shell with a 14″ round of parchment paper and fill with dried beans or rice.  Place the springform pan on a sheet pan and bake the pastry shell for about 40 minutes or until the fluted edges are lightly browned.  Carefully remove the parchment paper with the dried beans.  I used a scoop to remove most of the beans before lifting the parchment paper out.  Return the shell to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the bottom is lightly browned.

Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and let cool.  The baked pastry shell can be covered with plastic and left at room temperature overnight if needed.

Quiche Filling:
8 slices of bacon, cubed and fried until crisp and then drained
1 pound of asparagus, trimmed and sliced and blanched in boiling water until crisp tender.  Transfer to ice water to retain color.  Dry thoroughly before adding to quiche
3/4 cup Swiss cheese
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups of milk
6 eggs
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

Scatter 1/4 cup of the Swiss cheese and 1/2 of the bacon and asparagus over the bottom of the pastry shell.  In a blender or the bowl of a stand mixer blend together 1 cup of the cream, 1 cup of the milk and three of the eggs with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and a pinch of nutmeg until frothy, about 1 minute.  Pour over the asparagus mixture.  Add 1/4 cup of the Swiss cheese and the remaining bacon and asparagus.  Blend the remaining cream, milk and eggs until frothy and pour over the top.  Add the remaining 1/4 cup of Swiss cheese to the top.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and bake the quiche for about 1 1/2 hours or until the top is nicely browned and the custard is barely set in the center.  Let cool in the pan until very warm.  Remove springform ring, slice and serve.

Printable recipe

Monday was a beautiful Spring day with temperatures in the low 80’s; a perfect day to spend with a friend shopping and having a leisurely lunch at a new restaurant.  The friend is also my blogging buddy, the other Penny of The Comforts of Home.  We had not seen each other since I went to Florida last Winter so we had a lot of catching up to do.  The perfect place to do that was a new restaurant in Asheville called Books & Breadboard; a novel idea. 

The ambience is warm and friendly with tables scattered amongst the bookshelves.  The menu is thoughtfully organic and the owners and chef support local farmers.  But what attracted me was the mile high quiche.  I had stopped in the week before to peruse the books and heard comments about the quiche; words like custardy and light.  Besides who wouldn’t want something called “mile high” anything.  It is a thing of beauty.

All of the food is served on breadboards.  The quiche I ordered was the bacon, asparagus and Swiss cheese version.  It was indeed light with just the right custard crumble to it.  I did ask if the chef would part with the recipe, but as I expected, that was not going to happen.  I blogged about a similar quiche here.  It is made in a 9″ springform pan and uses more eggs and cream than quiches made in a pie tin or tart pan.  Checking the internet, I found another recipe from Thomas Keller here.  It was on a blog called AMZing Eats.  That is the recipe I am going to try, substituting the mushrooms with bacon, asparagus and Swiss.  I will let you know the results.

Penny ordered the soup of the day which was a white bean, tomato and basil with a half sandwich of turkey with cranberry mayonnaise.  You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu.  It was a wonderful lunch and the shopping wasn’t bad either.  Blogging friends are special. 

Sunday afternoons will usually find me in the kitchen trying new recipes and taking my time with my cooking.  This puts me in mind of the Slow Food Movement.  Part of their philosophy is to take your time and savor your food, know where it comes from, and keep it as authentic as possible.

This Sunday I made this beautiful Swiss chard tart from a recipe from Laura Calder, the host of French Food at Home on the new Cooking Channel. I love her show. I love her quiet and serene approach to everything she cooks. The episode in which she made the tart had to do with Grandmothers’ recipes; those tried and true recipes that are handed down through the generations on yellowed and dog-eared pages in old notebooks.
 

The tart was made in a springform pan instead of a pie pan so it had a very rustic appearance with high crusty sides and a deep filling.  It appealed to me on so many levels.  I loved the vibrant color of the rainbow chard stems and leaves, the custardy filling and the sprinkling of dried cranberries and almonds.

The one thing Laura Calder did not give on the program was a recipe for a pie crust, so I had to come up with that on my own.  I made an all butter pastry and increased the preportions by one half to fill the springform pan.  It would have been easier to mix the pastry in the food processor but I don’t always like the results.  I think the blade action heats the butter too much and the whole point to making good pastry is to keep the butter cold.  So I slowly worked my butter into my flour by cutting it in with a knife.  This was a satisfying task for a lazy Sunday afternoon.  According to the Slow Food Manifesto,  “A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life”.  I choose to slow down and enjoy what I am doing, especially when the end results are so satisfying.

SAVORY RAINBOW CHARD TART

For the Pastry:
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
11 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup ice water  (a little more if needed)

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.  Cut the butter into small cubes.  Add to the flour mixture and with a pastry blender or knife, cut the butter into the flour until it is in small crumbs.  Add the ice water and stir in with a fork until pastry comes together.  If dry, add a little more water.  Bring pastry together with your hands and form into a flattened disc.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Flour a work surface, and remove pastry from the plastic and roll it out into a 14″ circle.  Put pastry into a 9″ springform pan.  Return to refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour to firm up butter.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line pastry with parchment paper and fill the springform pan with dried beans.  Put springform pan on a sheet pan and blind bake the pastry for approximately 15 minutes. The butter in the pastry will leak from the springform pan a little so it is a good idea to have it on a sheet pan so as not to drip in your oven.  Carefully remove beans and parchment paper and continue to bake pastry shell for 10 more minutes or until lightly browned.  Set aside while you make the filling.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil
2 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 slices thick bacon, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 pounds Swiss Chard, preferably Rainbow Chard
3 eggs
1 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream and sour cream combined
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
Handful of dried cranberries
Handful of toasted almonds or pine nuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat the oil in a saute pan and fry the shallots until soft and translucent.  Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Remove to a plate.  In the same pan, fry the bacon until the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisp.  Remove to the plate with the shallots.  Divide the chard leaves from the ribs; chop the ribs quite small and shred the leaves.  First, fry the ribs in the bacon fat until tender. (Cook’s Note:  You may want to cover the pan for a few minutes to speed up the process.)  Add the chard leaves to the pan, cover and wilt, about 3 minutes.

Beat the eggs together with the creme fraiche, and season with salt, and pepper.

In a large bowl, toss the shallots, bacon, chard stems and leaves, cheese, cranberries, and nuts, to combine evenly.  Fill the tart shell with the vegetable mixture with a slotted spoon so that any liquid will be left behind.  Pour over the cream mixture.  Bake tart on a sheet pan until the tart has set, about 30 minutes.

I am linking this post to the Two for Tuesdays blog hop.  You will find many blogs there with recipes and thoughts on cooking with authentic ingredients.